「 ♡ HQX — CECILIA
STRONGHOLD CANTA THREE
personality —
the opulent queen : empathetic, reliable, knowledgeable, adaptable
blunt, private, reckless, indecisive : the heart of a broken dancer
summary : the loyalty is in people with an independent, unbreakable spirit of her own.
The basics of cecilia's greatest stregnths is that she's the member that adjusts easily towards things; she searches for the momentum and will live at the present, whether it be missions or caring for people. but she knows the point of reaching towards a higher ground; and she doesn't let that motivation lose her.
yet in the end she does have her moments where she is a free spirit; her adaptability became her greatest weakness when she can't commit through when there isn't any purpose that pushes out into her; the very reason she still comes around at harley.xx is the very people inside it.
background —
“How did you came here?” malee asked, glancing at sulmyung. the old, floored studio has long been abandoned; just a standing malee there, looking at the slumping sulmyung.
“My past is filled with a fate born to dance. My parents were famed dancers, the child has the unsaid obligation to leave the same footprints.”
july 22, 1992 : cecilia knew well of the real life back in the day of her past history; born as the only daughter of a renowned ballerina from south korea and a principal dancer who'd resided in russia for a while before going back to south korea and got married.
“It wasn't the continuous body-shaming I had, nor workers who'd 'accidentally' touch me whenever I finished getting out of the play, that made me quit, neither is any painful choreography modified at the last minute. I still have one dream and few friends with the same struggle to make by then.”
1997 - 2008 : the moment sulmyung was born, she was trained ballet since the first few years; and then she got enrolled to ballet classes. the training days has been exceptionally harsh and extremely energy-draining; and from early, sulmyung started having body image issues. not only that, prolonged dancing has made her leg structure different; but mostly on the body image part. she was pushed to achieve the best and go to a good ballet school; even at young, she started performing on stage already.
“I was so close to getting a great life. I thought it was a repayment for my work for eleven years.”
january 2008 : so famous she became, and at the age of fifteen, she was offered by top ballet academies to start enrolling her after she got off middle school. by then, she's been sacrificing most of her school time; coming out to enjoy ballet more than ever. dancing was her lifeline that she can't sacrifice when it's the only choice. her parents are much prouder of her this way, more than the other days.
“Life is cruel. If most of you came because your family broke you, I came because I broke them and myself. My friends had to leave because they also got into good schools, and I could do nothing because my life has been over. that. point!” sulmyung screamed, her yells echoing the abandoned building. malee winced as she saw sulmyung, her knees bent, mulling soft sobs. malee awkwardly shifted, before pulling sulmyung closer to a hug.
15 february 2008 : but out of nowhere, life pulled the cruel line on her; in a particularly difficult rehearsal, something ripped out from her left leg, and she fell down at the floor, harsh with a popping sound. several x-rays and visits to the hospital revealed that sulmyung severely tore her acl (anterior cruciate ligament) and would took at least one year to be able to dance again.
“I regretted that I ran away. At the lowest point of my life, shii yan approached me.”
28 february 2008 : even with treatment, the moment her achilles tendon snaps, she knew that in no longer than a year that the offers will go away along with the momentum of achievement she'd had at that young age; and that desperation set a cold pain at her; she may dance, but the momentum has passed and she can't be going to the colleges set up for her. out of desperation and sadness, she packed her bags and ran away from home, leaving an apology for her parents.
“I don't believe harley.xx was made to do good, but i took that offer when i knew of no choice.”
01 march 2008 : so in one cafetaria in the fringes of seoul, a woman approached her, and asked her to join her, giving sulmyung a choice in life again. sulmyung's thoughts were short; so she took it and was trained for six years until she became one of harley.xx's youngest queen. it wasn't known whether shii yan was aware of her dancing career, but sulmyung acknowledged it when her alias, 'cecilia', was given to her.
“my legs are fine now, but i don't dance anymore. it's just more murder.. and blood. harley.xx gave you a second chance when your options are down to death, but i want to live new. harley.xx isn't my life anymore. i don't want to avenge something i've come clean about.”
relationships —
shii yan ; terror (34)
“she meant well; but now it tastes like complicated a bittersweet idea.”
shii yan has always been there for the longest time sulmyung knew and although not the first newcomer, might have been the oldest there for all she knew. shii yan's feelings has been there of a frustrated mother when her teen daughter grew up; the older woman rarely got angry at her girls and even less being hit, but sulmyung succeeded in both on completely separate events. shii yan tries to keep her closer, but after kwanjai's death, sulmyung's losing more of it everyday under her. the only way to clear things up was talking, but sulmyung's not up for it. seven years out and going, shii yan's one time slippage had indirectly caused seven aces and two jacks being dead; sulmyung was one of the survivors. with harley.xx's largest growth being after 2010, nine was nine too many. shii yan may have indirectly did it, but she does pushed cecilia to train even harder and made her one of the speedily improving assassins of harley.xx. whether sulmyung likes it or not, she knew shii yan pulled her away at her worst moments and improved her as a character and as an assassin; the purpose of harley.xx lingered and subconciously, she was hesitant about letting go when the freshest minds made her know that shii yan has tried her best in many ways.
kwanjai (alias : bo peep) ; despair (12 — at death)
“i'm sorry.”
'kwanjai' wasn't her real name; she was a thai orphan who successfully escaped illegal human trafficking done by underground ion rings thanks to shii yan's operations and it was cecilia who first offered her hands to her back in 2008. kwanjai was her best friend when both of them knew their love for dancing. kwanjai was a breath of fresh air when it gets serious; she was the bubbly fun one when cecilia was too pressured by missions, and cecilia takes care of her like an older sister with a little one she never had.
but on one particular morning in 15 january 2010, cecilia was frozen to discover kwanjai's mutilated body in front of shii yan and other despaired aces and jacks. it took five of her peers to hold her when she was going to claw the living being out of shii yan for kwanjai's death. as the rumors went, kwanjai died after a sadistic raid done by another assassination organization that wanted blood from harley.xx. now, after the whole ordeal, shii yan did ended up conducting the large operation that destroyed the group, but for cecilia, the incident (in which some more aces also died) makes her doubt the desire to live at harley.xx. kwanjai was the continual reasons why cecilia wants to quit; between shii yan and kwanjai, her heart was fighting all the way out to figure out a real purpose in her stay and life.
malee winai ; renewal (17)
“nice to see you.”
when malee winai came months after kwanjai's death, cecilia wasn't too assured on what to say about her; the older welcomed her the way she did to many other girls before her, but it kinda came quick that malee was much different as her own identity. regardless, malee's a demure kind-hearted one whom easily transitions into harley.xx and is mostly likeable to the crew.
malee wasn't the only one recruited at harley.xx at that particular moment coinciding kwanjai's death, but cecilia couldn't help but subconciously act like an older sister with her. cecilia tries to deny any involvement with kwanjai's death, but any older harley members could actually connect the two and two together. cecilia prefers the idea of her caring for other aces and jacks.
general rapport ; her relationship with other aces has been generally neutral; she can and is willing to help them although the feeling isn't too mutual when cecilia's looks could kill someone. jacks knew her better, but the general relationship is pretty much more okay than aces. queens knew her rather well; she doesn't talk much to them either.
trivia —
walking : taking a long mile along beaches or quiet roads of tiny corners of seoul in the night while enjoying the breeze has always been a truly calming or relaxing sensation after any grueling missions or training.
academic : while cecilia skipped many school days for performances, she can still keep it up barely above school minimum, even if the tasks has been rather grueling and challenging.
gore : before 2012, cecilia wasn't too affected by sight of organs or blood, but after the raid, she couldn't help but get memory of kwanjai's horribly disfigured body. except for her own, for some reason.
little kids ; cecilia's good with little kids, surprisingly. any years of her being under harley.xx would still make her hesitate when her targets is them.
vintage ; she likes old and antique things.
caffeine injects ; cecilia lives and thrives off strong bitter coffee. and also green tea, but that's another thing. still thinks starbucks is overrated.
wits ; cecilia's demure, but occasional snarks can break airy tension or makes them worse. it's kind of hard to see her not going to change anything in particular when with people, really.
motto ; be cool-headed, be wise, and live your life.
ace - jack - queen ; cecilia starts out being an ace at age 15 — jack at 16-20 — and then became a queen at 21.
binge ; if there's a perfect sin to describe cecilia, glutton fits. before her harley days, she can binge eat in contrary to normal kids, but with increasingly cut intake after she grew up, she's much more limited. nowadays she just takes in considerable while cooking herself.
january 2010 ; the basic idea of the line (moon you may use this or omit them; either way i could work with both ideas) is that a series of ruckus harley.xx created in an underground ring has made them seek revenge by infiltrating harley.xx and basically doing a mass murder. those deaths were mostly aces and jacks who were visiting the headquarters. those involved also includes unfortunately, cecilia's friend. shii yan was, in an occasion, was too overwhelmed at the end of the death and finally put higher security while pushing out the revenge outlier against the organization and destroyed them completely just six months later. cecilia, who was back then a jack, participated per se shii yan's words.
body building ; cecilia has been training herself in strength, although she didn't use them lots when she easily slips away and uses weapons most of the time. she can still do pirouette, splits, and occasionally challenges jacks or queens to do a running competition with her at high grounds.almost obviously ballet, but sometime after kwanjai's death, she can tumble and freeze. of course, being in harley.xx doesn't make it useful, but for entertainment purposes, it is a nice thing
art of communication and seduction ; cecilia can sweet-talk, but terrible at seducing people. she works in silence rather than with people, either way.
cosmetics ; although a former dancer, cecilia doesn't really care about most scars and just felt they are 'cool'. other than that, cosmetics are still a part of her, and she's known for getting buns and braids up fast. people can also find bobby pins all over harley.xx too.
year of initiation — 2008
strengths — mostly involving hiding and surprises
|| a former dancer for approximately 10 years, its undoubted that cecilia is one of the most flexbile assassins of her batch. going out jumping buildings, grabbing rusty barbed wires or small tunnels, cecilia has zero problems in going through it. running, climbing, jumping, and gliding, cecilia is up for surprises. she's extremely agile and has made herself the 'sugar glider' for reasons when her enemies could barely pinpoint her locations. (think of ty lee from avatar) before she delivered the killing blow.
|| cecilia is constantly improving for her attacks and improvs. she's not the fastest learner, but can implement them very well. most has been self-taught through experiences; the girl likes to get first-hand experiences and that has made her even better than most of her early peers. she's also good using her surroundings to attack, such as using curtains, pillows, scissors, tables, etc.
weaknesses —
|| without her weapons, cecilia's major weaknesses has always been brute strength. cecilia's punches aren't strong enough to beat a person down. at least not someone twice than her size. and although she's been using her feet much more carefully now, she has to sacrifice a few ribs or an arm or two to prevent her feet from spraining. she'd rather have one of them break than her own legs.
|| her pain tolerance is high, but had someone sprain or messes up with her bones, she can't do anything in the strength given above she's now using hidden casts to prevent people from pulling her legs or arms.
stamina —
has an above average pain tolerance. can be real deal to coerce to even get her treatment when she hasn't finish a fight yet. she's been warned that hiding her wounds could get her killed, but she paid no heed to many of them. on daily basis, having her hands burned is not a worrisome occasion.
her ballet experience has gave her cardio workouts (that she uses to this day, improved) that gets her stamina running high for at most two hours of constant running and jumping. if she doesn't do running, she doesn't get too exhausted either.
preferred weapon/s — honestly, cecilia just hides everything behind her skirts and nobody is assured of what she's holding either.
(knives) frequently used because they're much easier to hide behind her boots, dresses, or long pockets. she's using them as a mild distraction or a full-on main weapon to fight. one stab at the skin drives people unconcious, but one at the brain is a mostly sure kill. unfortunately, she doesn't leave sights of blood around, so she's using them less now. the most used type is zero tolerance 0160.
(dual whips) rather new, but like indiana jones, supposedly? whips can hurt as much as they can tie and pull to make people unconcious. usually after distraction by knives. they hurt much worse, but not enough to injure.
(revolvers/semi-autos) both are smaller versions of rifles and shotguns, but easily pocketed. easy if she's aiming for a fast kill. leaves much less blood, but filling magazine in and out is a chore and there has been occasional times she didn't empty the safety chamber and accidentally shot the ground. she's also causing a lot more ruckus when she shots multiple times. used as last resort.
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